Warriors flat line at a very bad time: The late-season slippage is really showing now

They can still make the playoffs and the Warriors probably still should make the playoffs, even now that the long slip-slide back towards mediocrity is fully evident.

If the Warriors get this just partly straightened out, they can go 8-7 down the last few weeks and seal a playoff berth. But if they play anything like this, it’ll be a brief playoff appearance and it might be highly humiliating–and it could feel incredibly anticlimactic and slightly undeserved.

Those are the issues raised by a game like this, and a long sluggish stumble like this.

Tonight was the beacon-light blast for everybody who sensed and warned and bellowed that the Warriors are a far lesser team now than they were a few months ago.

Tonight was the undeniable game: Chicago led every moment of this game, led by 10 at halftime and by 36 in the second half, and the Warriors folded up like a piece of rice paper and blew away almost immediately. At Oracle Arena. At the end of a 7-game home stand that was supposed to lift the Warriors into a near playoff certainty.

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Against a Bulls team that started Marco Belinelli and Nate Robinson in the back court and just lost to Sacramento by 42.

“Very unacceptable,” guard Jarrett Jack said after the 113-95 torching. “We know what that team’s niche is in this league, they play hard each and every time…

“For us, it’s just embarrassing from the jump ball all the way down to the last play. They just out-played us. It’s embarrassing to us, to this organization, to our coaching staff, to the fans that come in here and support us non-stop.

“We have a chance to correct it on Saturday (in Houston) but we still can’t overlook this type of effort.”

The Warriors’ first unit was destroyed by Chicago’s first-liners. Andrew Bogut and David Lee were left in the dust by Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah from the first play of the game.
The Warriors missed their first 11 three-point tries. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson looked like they were in slow motion.

And the coaching staff had no answers. There was nothing anybody could do–the Oracle crowd barely even booed before they all filed out, quietly and uncomfortably.

Since starting 30-17 this season, the Warriors are 7-13… The defense is worse, the rebounding has fallen off and physical teams are bouncing the Warriors around. And even in most of the games they’ve won, they’ve looked off-kilter for long portions.

Yes, there’s been slippage.

“I mean, that’s typical,” Jack said. “The season is a bunch of peaks and valleys–I’ve said that before. As the season goes on, teams get better, teams get smarter, rotations get shorter and the room for error is that much shorter, as well. We have to understand that.

“And people fail to realize, we’re still a fairly young basketball team. And not to say that we use that as an excuse, but experience is something that we’re going through and we’re growing as we go through it. And sometimes you take one on the chin because of it and hopefully further on down the line it will be beneficial for us.”

But there hadn’t been a game like this one–as co-owner Joe Lacob sat court side, glowered, shook his head and endured the lowest point of what had been an amazing renaissance season.

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What happened? “Got out-worked,” coach Mark Jackson said. “Right off the opening tip, we just didn’t (work)–loose balls, rebounds, screens, moving without the basketball–any way you want to measure playing with force, we failed tonight.”

So what happens now, that is the question. Jackson said he doesn’t plan any major adjustments to his playing rotation, and really, there’s not much he can do.

“There’s no sense of panic–we were bad,” Jackson said. “I don’t think you look and say, ‘Well, one guy was bad.’ From 1 through 5, that first unit, I can remember clearly, I told ’em, ‘There’s not a guy that’s winning his match. There’s not a guy.’ That happens. And we move forward.

“I’m not going to panic and we’re not going to panic. We’re just fine. That’s a bad game. They know it’s a bad game and they know it’s unacceptable.”

Earlier this season, the Warriors won by maximizing Lee, Curry, Jack and Thompson’s offensive weaponry, and by covering up a lot of their limitations (mostly: straight up defense), and now that the limitations are being exposed, they just have to grind through it.

They will win when they shoot the ball well and play better defense–tonight they shot horrendously and played no defense. And they can be a decent playoff team if they figure out new ways to score (better slashing to the basket?) and actually play straight up D–if that’s possible.

So they go to Houston now–a team that has beaten the Warriors in all 3 match-ups so far this season.

“We played bad and we lost the ballgame,” Jackson said. “I don’t think it said anything about (the Bulls) getting drilled by 40 to Sacramento, because at the end of the day they came in and handled their business. And I would expect us to respond in the same way. What it says is we were bad tonight. Embarrassing effort, disappointing, but we move on.”

The league has adjusted to the Warriors, and either the Warriors figure out a way to get better shots and fight through screens and defend the paint… well, the slippage could turn into a free fall. But there’s time, and the Warriors have the experience of winning not too long ago.

“Nobody’s panicking, nobody’s putting their head down, nobody’s calling a team meeting or anything like that–ringing the alarm or anything,” Jack said. “There’s a lot of basketball left and time for us to correct what we saw here tonight.”
If they play better, the playoffs will come. But the main immediate goal has to get the defensive intensity anywhere close to credibility.

“I’m not concerned about the playoffs,” Jackson said. “We’re a good basketball team. We’re going to win games. That’s not an issue. The concern is tonight we were very bad. We got out-worked and we were bad.”

Hey Warrior nation, it time to panic. The 7-13 trend line is a real measure of how things are going from now to the end of the season. Not much is going to change as this team is what it is. Sad, how much of the talent and chemistry during the 30-17 run vanished, regressed, and got jumbled. Going 3-4 for the final games will be impressive but ending the season 10-17 for the post season is not promising at all. Is it too late to tank for a better draft position? (Like we’re going to cover ourselves in glory in the post season?)

jason bourne

Bring Dominic McGuire back! The Dubs need to get guys who can play defense during crunch time. Also, Bazemore could see more PT.

NYC Fan

Clear problems over the last several games I’ve been able to catch.

1. Rebounding and defense are bad. Giving up too many second chance points, drives into the lane, and open jumpers.
2. Too much dribbling and waiting for plays to develop on offense. All the off ball screens are messing up timing and clogging the driving lanes.
3. Trying to pass into traffic, make “fancy” passes to players that lead them into traffic/defenders and does not lead to easy looks, but instead turnovers. Instead of forcing passes we need to take/make the open looks we have. Too much hesitation to take a good luck because they think they can get a better look, when in fact they are creating turnovers.
4. Too much dominating the ball by Jack (see also #2).
5. Landry has broken down. Length of season taking its toll.
6. Bogut looks hobbled and in pain ALL the time.
7. Coaching staff sticking with cold players for long stretches.
8. Not getting lee enough post looks or pick and roll/pop looks. And I am no lee fan.

Coaching staff please earn your pay and make some adjustments like the rest of the league who have figured us out.

Niners in 2012

what sucks is there is no flexibility to sign anybody this summer, no draft picks. Expect no changes, while us fans are fed the false hope of having a “full season of Bogut” next year. Hoping things to be better. Man, the Warriors are depressing. Atleast we have the Niners, baby.

I had to turn off the game 5 minutes into the 3rd. It was way too depressing. I wish there were answers to the Warriors problems, but I don’t see any. To see the Warriors reaction on Twitter go to http://www.warriorstwitterfeed.com.

gizzm

Tanking wouldn’t do any good bro, our pick goes to Utah.
The Utah game on April 7 and the two Laker games are the biggest ones left. Gotta win 2 of 3 of those.
I have no idea why Jackson NEVER EVER pulls Klay when he is sucking, I mean, I know they made that lame commercial together, but it’s not like Klay is some perrenial All Star, he’s in his 2nd year for God’s sake. You can tell Barnes doesn’t really want to be here, the guy gets pulled for every little mistake while Klank Thompson continues to suck and never gets pulled. Jackson’s rotations are bad , so are the W’s defensive rotations

Ron

Wake up, Warrior fans! These are guys are going to blow the playoffs because they are BAD. And Jackson doesn’t know what to do about it.

How about a little run for the Baze? He really showed something last night.

Yawn

Tough times for sure in Warriorland. That game was hard to watch, and its obvious the guys are gassed. DLee has to get his knee bruise healed, and they have to find some kind of spark from their earlier play. What is pretty amusing though, is that we are seeing more Timmy articles on them now that the W’s are trending down…
Just sayin’

Nipper

Warriors suck and all those early games are just a memory. No fight in this group despite the propaganda in the local media. Sure they’re a nice group of nice guys but who cares? We want a winner!

sffranciscan

37 years and counting (and, yes, that includes the ultimate Fraud, Don Nelson.

Rick Barry will be dead before this team is worth watching, much less caring about. What a brutal stretch.

Darth Warrior

i haven’t been able to watch full games but i do check out highlights, and most of them are curry and thompson chucking up three’s. you live and die shooting from long range. mostly the W’s have been dying…but what else can they do? that’s their strength–and their weakness.

Watching other teams shoot the ball, one get a feel that it’s going to be a made shot.

Watching the Warriors shoot the rock, I don’t have that same degree of confidence-not since Ellis was on the team. Even as great as Curry is-percentage-wise, many of his shots are bad selections and watching Klay take the same elbow shot and he misses it time after time. Bogut can be a presence, but he stays high in the post and uses his defensive abilities in spurts and the other teams know this; he runs like he has a brick in his back pocket. Play him with his back to the basket ala Chamberlain or Jabbar and pass to a cutting Barnes or kick out to Curry or Klay-this “setting a pick” game isn’t working, just wearing down the players in the stretch run.